North Korea was one of the few countries that sold weapons to Iran during the Iran–Iraq War. North Korea is located in East Asia, bordering South Korea, China, and Russia. After World War II, the southern part of the Korean Peninsula was occupied by the United States and the northern part by the Soviet Union. In 1948, the Republic of Korea was established in the south, while in the north, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea—North Korea—was formed as a communist state.⁠[1]

Political relations between Iran and North Korea began in 1973 with the publication of a joint statement in Pyongyang and Tehran. That year, North Korea opened its embassy in Tehran at the chargé d’affaires level. In May 1974, Iran’s ambassador in Beijing was accredited as ambassador to Pyongyang. Relations between the two countries continued after the victory of the Islamic Revolution.⁠[2]

North Korea was among the first countries to recognize the Islamic Revolution of Iran. In early 1979, Ho Dam, North Korea’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, arrived in Tehran at the head of a delegation and traveled to Qom to meet Imam Khomeini (ra) to congratulate him on the Revolution’s victory.⁠[3]

With the outbreak of the Iran-Iraq War, North Korea was one of the countries that secretly offered to sell weapons to Iran.⁠[4]

On October 28, 1980, Iran received forty 23-mm anti-aircraft guns from North Korea, and on November 25, another two hundred 5.14-mm anti-aircraft guns were delivered.⁠[5]

In 1981, a number of Iranian military commanders led by Brigadier General Qasem-Ali Zahirnejad traveled to North Korea to visit military industries and purchase weapons.⁠[6] Subsequently, Iran received 60-, 81-, and 120-mm mortars, 15,000 to 16,000 explosive fuses for those mortars, and 130-mm artillery pieces.⁠[7]

On January 30, 1982, a high-ranking North Korean military delegation headed by Kim, Chief of the North Korean Army General Staff, arrived in Ahvaz to visit the warfronts.⁠[8] The delegation aimed to study the role of popular forces, the structure of Iraqi defensive lines, the vulnerability of Eastern tanks, night-fighting methods, and the role of the Jahad-e Sazandegi engineering units in the war. They were also interested in visiting the regular Iranian Army because of its Western equipment. The delegation went to the headquarters of the 92nd Armored Division of the Army in Ahvaz, where Colonel Masoud Monfared Niaaki, the Division Commander, hosted and briefed them. After visiting the Sabaleh Bridge, Kim suggested that the area be fenced off with barbed wire and preserved as a museum.⁠[9]

As relations between the two countries expanded, Iranian officials decided to open an embassy in North Korea, and on April 6, 1982, the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran was inaugurated in Pyongyang.⁠[10]

In the early years after the Islamic Revolution, there was no positive view of North Korea in Iran due to its atheistic ideology and communist system. For this reason, some members of the Islamic Consultative Assembly opposed the Iranian Foreign Minister’s trip to Pyongyang in late April 1982 for the seventieth birthday of Kim Il Sung. Nevertheless, the visit took place, and wartime needs, North Korea’s anti-American stance, and its lack of close ties with Iraq gradually led to the expansion of relations.⁠[11] The two countries shared similar positions on many international issues, including condemnation of Israel, opposition to apartheid policies in South Africa, support for the Palestinian cause, and resistance to U.S. interventionist policies toward Third World countries.⁠[12]

On April 25, 1982, North Korea’s Prime Minister also visited Iran at the head of a 60-member political, military, and economic delegation. North Korea proposed receiving oil from Iran in exchange for selling military equipment and other goods. As relations deepened, North Korea’s Parliament Speaker visited Tehran on October 16, 1982. North Korea sought Iran’s support for its policies toward South Korea, access to cheap Iranian oil, and a reliable market for its weapons. While North Korea generally received oil from Iran on time, it sometimes failed to meet its own obligations on schedule. Overall, economic relations with Iran were a significant help to that relatively poor country.⁠[13]

North Korea took a neutral position on the Iran–Iraq War. In its official statements, it did not criticize Iraq for starting the war or committing war crimes such as the use of chemical weapons and attacks on civilian areas, cities, ships, oil wells, and historical sites. However, unofficially, it expressed support for Iran’s positions. North Korea refrained from joining the economic sanctions against Iran and instead actively supplied it with essential goods. It purchased oil from Iran and exported goods to the country, while Iran expanded relations by exporting oil and other goods to North Korea.⁠[14]

During the Iran-Iraq War, Iran also used North Korea as an intermediary for purchasing weapons from Eastern Bloc countries, especially the Soviet Union and China.

Among Iran’s arms contracts between 1980 and 1987—excluding those with China and the Soviet Union—North Korea ranked as the leading supplier among other communist countries.⁠[15] In 1987, North Korea signed a $400 million arms deal with Iran, including artillery and Scud-B surface-to-surface missiles, which arrived in Iran by January 1988.⁠[16] $300 million of this deal covered the sale of 100 Scud missiles, of which 20 were delivered ready-made and the rest assembled in Iran.⁠[17]

The 170-mm artillery pieces purchased were deployed—three in the 15th Khordad Artillery Group and three in the 63rd Khatam (pbuh) Artillery Group of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.⁠[18] After these guns were stationed in Al-Faw, Iraqi naval facilities in Umm al-Qasr came under Iranian fire.⁠[19]

Between 1984 and 1988, Iran also purchased about 1,000 tanks of various types—including T-54, T-55, 260 T-59 tanks, as well as Chonma-ho tanks⁠[20]—from several countries, including North Korea.⁠[21]